Quality Alchemist (品質煉金術師): HKQAA Symposium 2017 (Part 1)

HKQAA Symposium is key annual event organized by Hong Kong Quality Assurance Agency (HKQAA) on 18^th May 2017. Hong Kong Society for Quality (HKSQ) is one of supporting organizations since 2006. The symposium’s frame in 2017 was “Governance, Risk and Compliance Management in the Era of Sustainability” and I summarized it below for sharing. Before the symposium, I took a photo with HKQAA friends in front of the symposium banner.

(Left: Ms. Bess Choi (Asst. Director, Corporate Finance), Ir. Wilman Chan, Dr. Micheal Lam (CEO), I, Mr. P.C. Chan (Chief Operating Officer) and Mr. Bryan Peng (Assistant Director))

(Left: Ms. Meico Cheong (Business Manager), Mr. Edwin CF Lau (Executive Director, The Green Earth), I and Mr. Bryan Peng)

(Left: Ir. Wilman Chan, I, Mr. Bryan Peng and Mr. Calvin Luk (Account Executive))

(Left: Mr. Jacky Yeung and I)

Morning Session

In the beginning, Ir. C.S. Ho (Deputy Chairman, HKQAA) gave a welcome speech. He said to change Sustainability to Opportunity. Then he briefed HKQAA new schemes included Hong Kong Registration – Food Waste Recycling.

Mr Wong Kam-sing (JP, Secretary for the Environment) was the officiating guest and gave a speech about government’s environmental policy which was one of four key areas in CE policy address. He also mentioned government would fully support the food waste recycling. During food waste recycling, it could be turned into renewal energy and reduced the carbon footprint. Finally, he thanked HKQAA different recognition scheme especially on Hong Kong Registration – Food Waste Recycling. Finaly, he showed the leaflet of “Food Wise Hong Kong” for public education and promotion.

Then the launch of Food Waste Recycling scheme ceremony was performed.

(Left: Ir. C.S. Ho (Deputy Chairman, HKQAA), Mr Wong Kam-sing (JP, Secretary for the Environment) and Dr. Michael Lam (CEO, HKQAA))

The first speaker was Mrs Vicki Kwok (Deputy Director of Environmental Protection, EPD, Government of HKSAR) and her presentation topic entitled “Food Waste Recycling: Sustainable Management of Resources”. Firstly, she introduced the food waste distribution in Hong Kong in 2015. There were 10,159 tonnes waste per day and food waste was about 33% (~3,380 tonnes per day). EPD performed food waste management since 2010 through Food Waste Recycling Partnership Scheme included Restaurants, Hotels, Markets, Food Factories, Shopping Malls and Property Management companies, etc.

Over 270 organizations had participated in the scheme and about 2,500 tonnes of food was has been collected and recycled up to April 2017. Moreover, there were 31 housing estates joined the scheme and about 1,110 tonnes of food waste turned into 220 tonnes of compost per year from July 2011 to April 2017.

Then Mrs. Kwok stated a new chapter on Food Waste Management. Their four steps plan was “Reduction at Source”, “Reuse & Donation”, “Recyclable Collection” and “Waste to Energy” from 2014 to 2022. The target was set from 3600 tonnes per day reduced to 2,100 tonnes per day (-40%) from 2011 to 2022. Moreover, EPD would establish Organic Resource Recovery Centres (ORRCs) and the first one would be commissioning in 2017 (ORRC-1).

ORRC-1 supported commercial and industrial sectors’ food wastes and government would provide free technical support, free training, establish the code of practices and strengthen the connections. The ORRC-2 would be commissioning in 2021 and ORRC-3 was under feasibility study in 2017. The Food waste recycling facilities was demonstrated in the following table. Finally, she mentioned to partner with HKQAA to raise industry standard.

Ms. Yuan Yuan (Head of GRI Regional Hub China, Global Reporting Initiative) was the second speaker and her presentation topic was "Strengthen Risk and Compliance Management with the New Sustainability Reporting Standard". In the beginning, she briefed the background on GRI and sustainability reporting that let their stakeholders to understand organization contributions towards the goal of sustainable development. GRI was the most widely-adopted sustainability reporting guidelines.

The set of GRI Standards included 3 universal Standards and 33 topic-specifi Standards organized into Economic, Environmental and Social series. There were two basic approaches that (1) Preparing a report in accordance with the Standards and (2) Using selected GRI Standards. Finally, she mentioned the standard effective date on 1 July 2018. At the end, she shared CLP case study about risk management in GRI Standards.

The third speaker was Ms. Brenda Kwok (Chief Legal Counsel, Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data, Hong Kong) and her topic named "Stay Ahead of the Privacy Management Trends: Local and International Perspectives". She firstly briefed the Hong Kong Data Protection Law included the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance. And then she played the video called “Think Privacy! Be Smart Online”.

Ms. Kwok quoted Mr. Stephen Lau (Former Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data) statement that “Data breach is no longer a question of IF, but a question of WHEN…” She said a need of paradigm shift from Compliance to Accountability. She also introduced a guideline named “Major Organisations Pledge to Implement Privacy Management Programme (PMP) to Protect Personal Data Privacy” which issued on 18 Feb 2014. Lastly she showed the fundamental principles and mentioned the three top-down management commitments.

During Tea break, I met my CityU students and took a photo for memory.

(Left: Ms. Sindy Lai (Shiu Wing Steel Limited), Ms. Chun Ka Po (Hip Hing Engineering Co., Ltd.) and I)

The forth speaker was Dr. Calvin Lee Kwan (General Manager – Sustainability, Link Asset Management Limited) and his presentation entitled "Green Financing: Create Value through Sustainable Properties". Firstly, he said Hong Kong seems losing the direction that we don’t know where we going. Then he proposed that Green Finance is one of directions in Hong Kong.

After that he mentioned the Link Green Bond Framework and should meet the following eligibility criteria:

i) Existing or new buidlings that expect to receive certification

ii) Energy efficiency

iii) Project such as that reduce waste to landfill, improve water efficiency, promote adoption of low carbon transportation including electric vehicles, and improve climate change resilience.

Lastly, he introduced the green map that their building was at location 24 of Kowloon East.

The fifth speaker was Mr. Joseph Law (Senior Director – Planning & Development, CLP Power Hong Kong Limited) and his presentation topic named “Implementing Corporate Governance Culture is Key”. In the beginning, Mr. Law quoted Ralph Waldo Emerson statement that “Culture is one thing and varnish is another.”

Then Mr. Law briefed CLP culture included “Cares for People”, “Cares for Community”, “Cares for Environment”, “Cares about Performance”, Respects Laws and Standards” and “Values Innovation and Knowledge”. He also mentioned that they had strong safety culture.

After that he introduced the value in CLP as shown in the following diagram that could reinforce the right corporate culture. Lastly, he quoted Alan Greenspan statement as conclusion for beyond compliance that “It is hard to overstate the importance of reputation in a market economy… Rules cannot substitute for character.”

The last speaker of morning session was Dr. Nigel Croft (Chairman, ISO Technical Subcommittee on Quality Systems (ISO/TC176/SC2) and his topic entitled "The Role of ISO Standards in Governance, Risk and Compliance Management for Today’s Business". Firstly, Nigel explained the rationale for ISO 19600 (Compliance management systems – Guidelines) that an organization’s approach to compliance is ideally shaped by the leadership applying core values and generally accepted corporate governance, ethical and community standards. He also stated compliance requirements were mandatory but compliance commitments were voluntary.

Then Dr. Nigel Croft mentioned new ISO Standard on Resilience named ISO 22316:2017 “Organizational resilience – Principles and attributes” included many topics such as: QMS, Risk management, Asset management, Stakeholder and Collaboration management, Reputation management, EMS, OHSAS, Business Continuity, ICT continuity, Cyber security, Change management, ISMS, Crisis management, etc.

Finally, Dr. Nigel Croft concluded that ISO standards were able to make many contributions to Governance, Risk and Compliance Management. For ISO 19600, it provided guidance on compliance on mandatory (legel) requirements and/or voluntary commitments; moreover, it was totally aligned with ISO 9001 & ISO 14001, etc. For new ISO 22316, it promoted organization resilience and its outcome was good business practice and effectively managing risk.

Panel Discussion was performed at the end of Morning Session and the guest moderator was Dr. Nigel Croft (ISO Technical Subcommittee on Quality Systems (ISO/TC176/SC2)). During the discussion, Nigel quoted Dr. W. Edwards Deming saying that "It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory."